


I'm Right Here

by Libraryof_Alexandria



Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: F/F, Fluff and Angst, Friends to Lovers, M/M, Soulmate-Identifying Marks, Soulmates
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-11-03
Updated: 2020-11-02
Packaged: 2021-03-09 03:55:17
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,781
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27358363
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Libraryof_Alexandria/pseuds/Libraryof_Alexandria
Summary: "Sokka was taught about marks at a young age as all the water tribe children were. Sometime, before the age 20 a set of soulmates would receive their marks. One of them would get lucky and wake up with a beautiful blue birthmark while the other experienced the pain of its creation (usually in some sort of accident) and was left with a scar. Sokka always thought this was unfair and honestly set the relationship off on a bad start. When he was younger he was always afraid of being the one who got hurt but now that he was older and thinking of someone he loved like Katara or one of the other children getting hurt made him hope it would be him who got the scar rather than the birthmark."
Relationships: Aang/Katara (Avatar), Sokka/Zuko (Avatar), Toph Beifong/Suki
Comments: 3
Kudos: 72





	I'm Right Here

When Sokka received his mark he jolted awake drenched in sweat and drowsily looking for the intruders that must have woken him up. Normally a howling polar dog couldn’t have woken him up, but all the hairs on his arms stood on end and the night seemed off. He grabbed his boomerang from under his pillow and shoved on his warrior uniform over his pajamas. Not wanting to look like he was caught off guard he shoved his far too large wolf helmet on and rubbed black face paint in his eyes for extra measure, not even bothering to check the mirror to see how it looked. He dashed out of his tent and immediately went to check on Katara.

. When he reached her room everything seemed normal. Katara was lightly snoring and he heard faint mumbles about waterbending as he searched her room for clues. He sighed in relief and decided not to wake her. It was his job as the oldest boy in the tribe to defend them after all.

“Something is off.” He whispered. He could sense it, something had changed. 

He crept towards the dock periodically shoving his helmet out of his eyes. 

Pausing when he saw the silhouette of a small figure at the end of the dock he pulled his boomerang into a striking position. However as he got closer in the darkness he could faintly see the pattern of their coat. “Gran Gran?”

She was holding a letter, her eyes wide as she read it and she held her candle so close to the words he was surprised the letter hadn’t burst into flames.

He could feel his pulse rise in his chest and throat as he approached her and the cold sting of the tundra wind froze the sweat to his skin. Her expression stayed as cold as the ice. “You’re up quite late Sokka.” 

He nodded not sure how to explain himself figuring Gran Gran must have accidently woken him as she slipped past his tent. “Is it a letter from dad?”

Gran Gran nodded her head but still gripped the letter tightly. “News from the fire nation. The son of the Fire Lord likely received his scar today.” She said. 

“Are you saying that as like, a good thing or a bad thing?”

Sokka was taught about marks at a young age as all the water tribe children were. Sometime, before the age 20 a set of soulmates would receive their marks. One of them would get lucky and wake up with a beautiful blue birthmark while the other experienced the pain of its creation (usually in some sort of accident) and was left with a scar. Sokka always thought this was unfair and honestly set the relationship off on a bad start. When he was younger he was always afraid of being the one who got hurt but now that he was older and thinking of someone he loved like Katara or one of the other children getting hurt made him hope it would be him who got the scar rather than the birthmark

“How did it happen?” He would have asked for the letter but by the time he made it to the end of the dock her candle had flickered out with the wind.

“His father burned him for speaking out of turn at a meeting.” Her voice was filled with hushed rage.

“Oh, well that sucks.” He said awkwardly and unsure of how to react. 

“I agree.” She replied while shoving the letter under her coat. “We need to check on all the young girls and make sure none of them are his soulmate. The fire lord is sure to be out looking for her by now and we need to protect our girls.

Sokka’s heart beat anxiously on his chest. “Where's the scar?” 

“Check their eyes.” 

After assuring her that Katara was alright he raced around the village stopping in every tent and finding nothing, he headed back to his tent. Gram-Gram doubted that the Fire-lord's son would have a soulmate in the water tribe but she didn’t want to be caught off guard.

He lit a fire in the center of his tent and waited for her to come in to make his report. He washed his face and removed the warrior garb he had frantically thrown on. Everything was going smooth under his watch he thought smugly. Even if they did come looking for a water tribe girl there was no way they would get past all of this. 

She dipped into his tent and he jolted up excitedly waving his hands around as he spoke. 

“Gran-Gran, we’re in the clear, none of the-.”

As she made eye contact with the brilliant blue mark covering his eye she covered her mouth barely stifling the gasp that was about to escape her.

\------------------------------------------------------------------

That was many years ago. Before the war, before he had actually met Zuko, before Zuko had actually turned out to be a pretty nice guy. 

He had been utterly ashamed when Zuko first started following them trying to kill Anng or kidnap him. After all these years nobody knew he was even Zuko's soulmate, not even Katara. Gran-Gran swore him to secrecy that night and taught him how to make his own make-up from berries and herbs and one year after the war he was still sticking to it even though his feelings for his soulmate made him want to come out of hiding. 

There was really no point now in keeping it a secret Zuko who was actually really nice (not to mention handsome) and now that the war was over he was especially charming. He was a part of team avatar, nothing but kind and helpful to his subjects, but the anxiety of Sokka's youth spiked whenever he thought about revealing his full identity. How he would be rejected and hated by both fire and water nations, how being the soulmate of the firelord would result in nothing but pain for them both. These thoughts weren’t actually true and he could acknowledge that but the panic was very very real.

Zuko looked up from where they were working on peace agreements and he felt his face grow warm. His face was always red when he was around Zuko but since they were in the fire nation he could get away with blaming it on the heat. 

“The search team thought they found a possible match the other day” he tried to casually inform Sokka but he could tell that Zuko was trying to gage his reaction. Zuko’s family had a search team for his soulmate since the night he received that scar. They had even visited his tribe a week after the letter came but with Gran-Grans help none of the searchers had even glanced at him.

“Oh” Sokka attempted to nonchalantly take a sip of his tea but he overshot and some of the liquid started to pour over on either side of his mouth. “Is it them?”

He watched Zuko's mouth twitched in a poorly concealed smile. “No, I think their soulmate is the victim of a severe cat scratch, not even the correct eye.” 

\-------------------------------------------------------

It was hard keeping his secret. He would wake up at the crack of dawn to wipe off his old makeup and reapply before anyone saw. He always triple locked his door. Also do you know how hard it is for a water tribesman not to get wet? 

His friends would laugh when Sokka ran for cover when it started to rain and he forgot his umbrella but Zuko would always offer his and never questioned his odd fear of getting wet.

Sometimes it was worth the risk to intentionally forget his umbrella and enjoy his warmth. Honestly Sokka spent a lot of his time pretending he was already in a relationship with Zuko. He personally didn’t think it hurt anyone, he was Zukos soulmate after all it wasn’t like he was cheating. Besides they just hung out all the time and he would snuggle up occasionally. Harmless. 

“Well, what about you?” Zukka asked him one day “What do you think your soulmate’s like?”

“Mm I never thought about it much.” 

Zuko’s eyebrows lifted “How could you not think about it.” 

Sokka shrugged and tried to come up with an answer that wasn’t a lie, “Whenever I think about them I get nervous and my stomach hurts. I know that being them will be nice otherwise they wouldn’t be my soulmate but I just can’t be sure and it scares me.”

Zuko nodded “I guess I can understand that. It’s just that sometimes it seems like everyone’s already found who they're looking for.”

What he was saying was kind of true at least for their circle. Anng and Katara found out that they were a pair when Anng had been struck by Azula's lightning bolt and the blue mark spread beautifully across Katara's back. And Katara made sure to show it off with low back dresses at every formal event the fire kingdom held. Suki and Toph were paired up when the edge of a blade had given Suki a deep slash across her collarbone. The gang had put their ears to the door to listen when Suki was explaining to toph that they had the same mark. It was really funny till Toph yelled that she could see them with her feet and that they had better leave before she gave them all some new marks to talk about. It seemed as though Zuko and Sokka had just been forgotten about

“Tell me if I’m being too forward Sokka but do you know if you’ve gotten your mark yet?” 

Sokka took a moment to mumble about a scar he had gotten while fishing with his dad when he was four when he heard Katara’s voice off in the distance calling for him. 

At that moment Katara called for Sokka and he quickly made his excuses and promised to continue their conversation later. 

Katara had actually just called him over to try and find Zuko so after pointing her in the right direction he speed walked to his room as casually as he could manage so he could take a moment to breathe. 

He needed to confess. This had gone on for way too long and he was just transferring his own fears onto Zuko. Sokka sighed and grabbed his notepad and his sword. He switched out of his ambassador water tribe clothing and into some common fire nation clothing so he could slip out of the palace and be unbothered for a while and figure out how he was gonna say this.


End file.
